Daria Doering

I was going to enter Mike in Redbook’s “America’s Hottest Husbands” contest, despite his being 20 or so years older than the usual winners, but I couldn’t seem to get it together with photos.  At any rate, here’s what I started writing:

My husband and I don’t have the “perfect marriage.”  We are more like the walking wounded.  We both grew up in dysfunctional if not abusive homes, have had personal problems to overcome, and the miracle is that we are still married after over 25 roller-coaster years together!  Nobody who knows us would have predicted it.  We have had to “work at it” in a variety of way: therapy, self-help books, our religious faith, and sheer determination and commitment.  Though our marriage has always had a “blissful” quality, it is now happier and more secure than ever before.

What makes Mike Doering “America’s Hottest Husband”?  Well, to begin with, just look at him, at age 61!  I never get tired of looking at my husband.  I’m almost grateful that he usually wears geeky glasses and hats, so other women don’t know how hot he looks in his natural state!!

But what makes my husband really hot is that he has always been so emotionally supportive.  I’m prone to depression and mood swings, and what I needed most in a husband was basically a live-in therapist!  Mike has filled that role brilliantly.  Even at our worst, when we used to have constant screaming fights, he was still able to listen empathetically while I vented about my travails with social relationships and work, and make helpful comments.

He has the “healing touch” for me.  I gave up making any attempt to go to massage therapists, because none of them came close to my husband rubbing my head or feet.  How many times, when I have been so exhausted and depleted from work, volunteer work, our three children, and whatever else, that I’ve collapsed on the couch, literally unable to move.  Mike has started rubbing my head, and it’s as if he is literally breathing life back into me.  I’m filled with waves of healing energy, and his touch feels so exquisite, and I’m so suddenly and unexpectedly revived, that it’s like having some new kind of orgasm!

I never cease being fascinated by my husband.  He comes from a working class background, and has worked as a welder, painter, and janitor.   He was a “starving student” for close to 20 years, putting himself through community college, university, and graduate school, without receiving a cent from grants, loans, or parents.  He has gone to more schools and worked at more jobs than anyone I’ve ever met, and finally got his “dream job” of working in the field of occupational safety, an interest he developed while working in shipyards.

Mike is incredibly knowledgeable and cultivated.  He is very interested in politics and world events, and always has something insightful to say about current events, not to mention sports.  He enjoys plays, classical music and opera.

Mike is an awesome dad.  When our boys got interested in ice hockey, I didn’t even think it existed in Southern California, where we live.  But Mike found some local hockey teams, and dedicated years of his life driving our boys around Southern California so they could pursue their hockey dreams.

To be continued …